I did not expect to find the best store-bought matzo ball soup I’ve ever tasted in a mall in Essex. May my Jewish grandmothers and mother forgive me, but Leo & Co.‘s version even beats most homemade ones I’ve sipped.
With every spoonful, the rich, savory broth served at the new café and market felt like it was infusing restorative roasted-chicken and vegetable goodness deep into my bones. The $6 serving boasted abundant diced carrots and celery and two plump matzo balls. Tender but with a springy bounce, those traditional dumplings are made from Manischewitz gluten-free matzo ball mix elevated by a not-so-secret home cook trick.
“We add seltzer to the batter, just like every good Jew,” said Leo & Co. proprietor Kayla Silver, who opened Salt & Bubbles Wine Bar and Market in summer 2021 in the same Essex Experience building as her latest venture.
Going gluten-free makes the soup accessible to more people, Silver added. Surprisingly, the matzo balls don’t suffer — and Leo & Co.’s 31-year-old New York City-raised owner knows from matzo balls.
They are the only clue to Silver’s heritage on the menu of creative sandwiches, baked goods, soups and salads, although she did name the business after a beloved great-uncle, Leo Keiles.
Despite the tragedy he endured, including surviving the Holocaust and later losing his only child, “Leo was just brightness. He was like light in a room,” Silver said. “The man never left anywhere without making a friend.”
Keiles and his wife ran a candy store in Dallas for many years, and he relished fine foods, Silver said. “He firmly believed if it wasn’t good, if it wasn’t tasty, don’t eat it.”
Uncle Leo’s spirit is well represented in his grand-niece’s bright, friendly and decidedly tasty counter-service café and market. Leo & Co. opened in July in the large space vacated when Sweet Clover Market ended its 17-year run. With a comfy couch area and farmhouse-style tables set on area rugs, the café invites customers to settle in.
On any given day, Leo & Co. might host colleagues discussing projects over excellent coffee (from $3), brewed from nearby Uncommon Coffee‘s freshly roasted beans; or eating breakfast sandwiches made with fluffy, cream-enriched local eggs on house-baked English muffins. The $7 meaty sandwich option comes with bacon and onion jam, but I preferred the $6 veggie for its punchy sun-dried tomato relish and pesto spread.
Friends meeting up for lunch will face the tough decision between the best-selling Dirt Candy Crunch sandwich ($13), featuring slabs of roasted beets layered with whipped herb chèvre, arugula, pepita crunch and sun-dried tomato relish; and a new fall veggie option called Cauli Back Gurl ($14), starring curried cauliflower, tangy black lime yogurt, spinach, pickled fennel and golden raisin chutney. My advice: Order both and go halfsies.
Or customers might come to enjoy a well-earned break over Leo & Co.’s carnivorous options, as Alex Trudeau and Elvis Salkic did while working on a house renovation in Essex last week.
Trudeau, 26, is a repeat customer whose favorite sandwich so far is the Cubano ($15), made with mojo-braised pork and housemade pickles. Last Tuesday, he ordered a new fall item, the Parisian ($15), which features prosciutto cotto with grilled pears, Brie, Mike’s Hot Honey and arugula. The Essex resident deemed it good — though it didn’t replace his first choice — and “good value for the money.”
By contrast, the young man said he opted for a canned iced tea because the $13 juices, though appealing, seemed pricey. Silver later explained that each freshly made juice contains “a shocking amount” of produce, organic and local if available.
Trudeau called Leo & Co. a great addition to his hometown. “It’s nice to break free from gas-station sandwiches,” he said, observing that Essex offers few quick lunch options. He also noted approvingly that the former outlet mall, where he worked as a teen, has evolved to include more locally owned stores and food and drink destinations.
As an Essex resident and business owner, Silver likewise said she’s been delighted to “watch this whole complex really blossom,” especially with many woman-owned establishments. Those include Uncommon Coffee and L’ivresse Lingerie, both in the same building as her two businesses.
Although Salt & Bubbles is open several days a week for lunch, Silver said she often wanted a quicker midday meal — “a sandwich that was better sourced, locally sourced and creatively made” — and knew she was not alone.
When the Sweet Clover space became available, she said, “It was just, like, go time. We knew it was a good fit.”
Silver is not a kitchen professional, but she knows what she likes. A manager at Honey Road in Burlington before becoming an entrepreneur, she invited two former colleagues from that restaurant’s kitchen, Diego Treviño and Quinn Gervia, to join her new endeavor as executive chef and sous/pastry chef, respectively. She gave them “creative autonomy,” she said.
Gervia, 28, is a top-notch baker. “I am literally living on [her] vegan blueberry muffin,” Silver said of the moist, seed-studded offering ($4).
I would drive back to Essex in a heartbeat for Gervia’s outstanding brown butter-chocolate chip cookie ($3) and black sesame-cream cheese frosted pumpkin muffin ($5), which tasted more like a not-overly-sweet cupcake. I wasn’t quibbling over its identity, however, as I snarfed it down.
Silver and Treviño, 28, created the savory menu by scrawling ideas all over a large roll of brown kraft paper in the empty café space, Silver recalled. “We love a creative sandwich with different ingredients that people have not seen together before or not had in a sandwich,” she said. “But we also didn’t want to get too weird.”
The goal was a mix of classics and novelties, with many housemade garnishes and sauces. Treviño’s must-haves were the Cubano and an “amazing Italian,” Silver said.
With the Paulie ($15), the chef has nailed the latter. A seeded hoagie roll plentifully stuffed with meats and cheese delivered just the right measures of salty, vinegary, spicy spunk, thanks to Calabrian pepper relish, olives and a red wine vinegar dressing.
The vegetarian options are equally compelling. I especially enjoyed the smoky-sweet Friggitelli ($14), which combines charred broccolini, roasted red pepper aioli, mozzarella, balsamic glaze and caramelized onions. Silver said it exemplifies “Diego’s creative genius” through the use of toum, a creamy garlic sauce from the Middle East. “It really transformed the sandwich,” she said.
Salads include the satisfying Notch ($15), greens with shredded Brussels sprouts, roasted delicata squash, crunchy chickpeas and a delightful herb-tahini dressing that I’d love to see bottled in the market coolers.
Those coolers and one long shelf in the back corner of Leo & Co. hold a small grab-and-go section of premade sandwiches and salads, along with a careful selection of farm-fresh produce, locally baked breads, Vermont-raised meats and eggs, and frozen desserts from local businesses.
A retail market wasn’t part of Silver’s original vision for the café, she said, but she had the space, and locals missed the convenience of picking up Vermont products at Sweet Clover. She said demand has been a little sluggish, but she believes it will grow, diversifying her cash flow while benefiting her neighbors.
Among the producers from which Silver buys direct for the café and market is 4-year-old Dandelion Farm in Westford. “Kayla reached out and said, ‘I’d love to source stuff hyperlocal,'” recalled Amanda Adams, 29, who farms with her husband, Mike Bickley. “She’s very community-oriented, and that shines through in her business.”
Leo & Co. is hosting pickup for the farm’s CSA share this fall. Adams said she’s “scheming” with Silver to grow some vegetables specifically for the café next year.
As the weather cools and local produce offerings taper off, Silver expects the grab-and-go section of the market to expand. She’s thinking of adding a small selection of soups and prepared meals, where customers could find containers of matzo ball magic to take home — if I don’t eat it all first.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Lunch With Leo | A new café and market brings creative convenienceto daytime dining at the Essex Experience”
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This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2024.
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